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US and Iraqi forces battle for areas south of Baghdad

US and Iraqi forces sealed off roads to an insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad yesterday and militants bombed two bridges in an apparent bid to hinder troop movement as pro-government forces tried to retake control of the region ahead of national elections.

On Tuesday, Iraq's Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said the tempo of attacks against insurgent strongholds would increase but acknowledged that the security challenge was a "source of worry."

"I don't want to deny the impact of the security situation nor minimize the size of the challenges we face," Allawi said during a speech in Baghdad.

More than 3,000 US and Iraqi forces on Tuesday launched a major operation to retake control of insurgent-held parts of Babil province -- an area notorious for kidnappings and ambushes and home to the fabled city of Babylon. The Babil operation followed last week's move to oust insurgent forces from Samarra.

The Marines and Iraqis punched their way across the Euphrates River, rounded up 160 suspects, seized a suspected training camp and took control of a major bridge, the US command said. The bridge, spanning the Euphrates, is believed to be a favored corridor linking insurgent areas around Baghdad, Fallujah and towns farther south.

Yesterday, US soldiers and Iraqi National Guardsmen were sealing off the roads leading to Qasir town in the area of Youssifiyah, preventing anybody from going in or out. A day earlier, insurgents detonated a car bomb in Youssifiyah, 20km south of the capital, as the Iraqi National Guard was conducting raids, killing one civilian and wounding 13 Iraqis.

Two explosions -- one a car bomb another a roadside bomb -- hit two bridges in the area yesterday, residents said, in an apparent attempt by insurgents to affect the movement of Iraqi and US forces.

In Fallujah, US-led forces unleashed a strike early yesterday on a suspected safe house in rebel-held Fallujah where leaders of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist network were believed to be meeting, the military said in a statement.

Three houses were flattened in the air strike, witnesses said. There were no casualties reported, said Dr. Dhiya al-Jumaili.

In Basra, a roadside bomb exploded as a British patrol was crossing a bridge, killing one Iraqi and injuring 10 others, police said.

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